Macintosh 128K Teardown: A Time Capsule With Keyboard and Mouse

The Mac turns 30 today, and what better way to celebrate than with a good ol' fashioned autopsy. iFixit proves that can be a lot more fun than it sounds with its classic 128K Macintosh teardown, a beautifully gory history lesson.

Maybe the craziest part of seeing inside the original 128K Macintosh as compared to its modern-day counterparts is the awkward glory of that CRT display. In a world stuffed with insane pixel-dense displays that are fused to the very glass that protects them, there's something ludicrously majestic about a black and white 512 x 342 (72 dpi), and its hulking capacitors. It's fun to look at, though I'm glad I don't have to use and/or touch one.

Of course that's only one part of the nostalgia. There's also the 128 KB DRAM and 400KB of storage (via 3.5-inch floppy) to marvel at. Not to mention the chunky glory of that keyboard and mouse.

It turns out that this old girl is pretty repairable too, with a score of 7 out of 10 with points docked mainly for tight screws and the relatively high risk of electrocution on disassembly. A far cry from glue and thermal paste. We've come a long way. [iFixit]